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Pride and Prejudice
Mountaineers · 10th–12th
Darcy says he writes because his “character required it.” Is the letter more an apology to Elizabeth or a defence of himself?
The tension On Jane he concedes, “If _you_ have not been mistaken here, _I_ must have been in an error,” yet ends, “I have not yet learnt to condemn them”; on Wickham he offers dates, sums and a witness, Colonel Fitzwilliam, whom she may consult.
What Darcy's letter sets out about Bingley and about Wickham, and what its way of arguing shows about the man writing it.
Elizabeth wakes still full of the evening before and goes out after breakfast for air, keeping off her favourite walk in case she meets Mr. Darcy. Stopping at a gate into the park, she sees a gentleman in the grove, fears it is Darcy and turns away; he calls her name, and she goes back. He says he has been walking in the grove in the hope of meeting her, holds out a letter, asks her to do him the honour of reading it, bows, and is soon out of sight. The letter is two sheets in a close hand, dated from Rosings at eight that morning, and she begins it as she walks on. Darcy promises not to renew his offer, says his character requires the letter to be written and read, and answers her two charges in turn. On Bingley and Jane: at the Netherfield ball he learned that a marriage was generally expected, watched Jane, and saw cheerful manners but no sign of special regard. He grants that if Elizabeth is not mistaken he must have been, and that her resentment would then be reasonable, but holds that Jane’s calm would have convinced anyone and that his wish to think her indifferent did not decide his belief. Beyond the rank of her mother’s family, he objected to a want of propriety in her mother, her younger sisters and at times her father, from which he exempts Elizabeth and Jane. With Bingley’s sisters he followed Bingley to London, argued against the match, and assured him of Jane’s indifference, which soon kept him from returning. He regrets only hiding from Bingley that Jane was in London, which he calls perhaps beneath him, and he has not yet learnt to condemn his motives. On Wickham, by Darcy’s account: the late Mr. Darcy’s godson, educated at his expense, Wickham was left a thousand pounds and the hope of a family living. Giving up the church, he took three thousand pounds instead, lived idly, and when the living fell vacant asked for it again and was refused. Last summer, helped by Mrs. Younge, who had charge of Darcy’s sister Georgiana, he persuaded Georgiana, then fifteen, to agree to an elopement at Ramsgate; she confessed it to her brother, and Wickham left. Darcy believes he wanted her thirty thousand pounds and revenge. Darcy trusts Elizabeth to keep the secret, says he could not tell her all this last night because he was not master enough of himself, names Colonel Fitzwilliam as a witness she may consult, and ends, “God bless you.” The chapter closes on his signature.
Start with the letter as an object, before anyone reads it: two sheets “written quite through, in a very close hand”, the envelope full too, dated from Rosings “at eight o’clock in the morning”. Ask what a reader learns about a writer from a letter like that before reading a word. Leave it there; the last written question asks whether the letter is more an apology to Elizabeth or a defence of himself, and the discussion builds toward it. As they read, have students keep two columns: what Darcy grants, and what he will not grant. Ask them also to mark where he tells Elizabeth what she will think (“you will hardly blame me”): the letter is written to one reader. Keep to the chapter. No answer may say how Elizabeth receives the letter; she begins reading on the lane, and her response is the next chapter’s. No answer may say that every word of the letter is proven; the chapter gives Darcy’s account and his offer of a witness, nothing more. No answer may say that Darcy still hopes to marry Elizabeth; he says those wishes “cannot be too soon forgotten.” And no answer may say what becomes of Jane and Bingley, or of Wickham. Watch for four traps: reading the letter as plain truth that ends the argument, when its reasoning about Jane deserves as much scrutiny as Elizabeth’s charges did; reading it as nothing but pride, and missing the one fault he admits and the secret he trusts her with; summarising the Wickham history and skipping the Bingley half, where his way of judging is most exposed; and treating the letter as information rather than writing aimed at one reader. Do not spend the hour on whether Wickham is a villain; the chapter cannot settle it. Ask how Darcy argues instead.
Retell The student retells the chapter in order: Elizabeth’s walk up the lane to avoid Darcy; the meeting at the gate and the letter held out; its opening promise; the Bingley half, from the ball where Darcy watched Jane, through the family’s “want of propriety” and the journey to London, to the one regret, the concealment; the Wickham half, from the will and the living, through the three thousand pounds, to Ramsgate and Georgiana; and the close, with the witness and “God bless you.” Then the student picks the sentence that matters most and says why. Look for a retelling that keeps the letter’s claims as Darcy’s (“he says”, “by his account”) and stops where the chapter stops.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes two short paragraphs for an invented dispute, such as a team captain explaining to a teammate why they talked a friend out of joining the team. First, on the model of the Bingley passage: a sentence that grants what an argument might have done (“however … might have”) and turns on a condition opening “had it not been”; a sentence with a qualifier between commas; two sentences that open the same way, on “To convince” and “To persuade”; and a short, flat close. Second, on the model of the turn: a fault named twice, the second word harsher; a “however” that takes the fault back; and a sentence that sets what the writer does not know against what he can prove. The student then says which sentence sounds least sure.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. One side argues the letter is more a defence of himself, and gathers “in the explanation of them which is due to myself”, “further apology would be absurd”, “I cannot blame myself for having done thus much”, “I have not yet learnt to condemn them” and the witness, Colonel Fitzwilliam. The other side argues it is more an apology, and gathers “your resentment has not been unreasonable”, “Perhaps this concealment, this disguise, was beneath me”, “I feel no doubt of your secrecy” and “God bless you.” Each side must answer the other’s best line. Neither may say how Elizabeth receives the letter, that it is proven, that Darcy still hopes to marry her, or what becomes of Jane, Bingley or Wickham.
Purpose Close on where the chapter stops. It ends on the signature, “FITZWILLIAM DARCY.”, with no word from Elizabeth and no sight of her face. Ask why Austen ends the chapter there, giving Darcy the whole of it unanswered, and leaving the reader alone with the letter, as Elizabeth is.
Easier Read aloud the meeting at the gate and the first paragraph of the letter. Then read the letter in two halves, the part about Bingley and Jane and the part about Wickham, stopping after each. Make two columns: what Darcy says he did about Bingley and Jane, and what he says Wickham did. Talk through the questions on the handover and on his sister’s secret, then answer the last written question aloud before writing it.
On level Talk through all six discussion questions in order, then write both written questions as a thesis, the strongest objection and a revised thesis, each with lines from the chapter.
Harder Ask for one argued essay on what it means to correct facts without conceding a judgment, testing Darcy’s line “I have not yet learnt to condemn them” against the evidence he himself gives about Jane: one evening’s watching, a wish he admits, and his own account that his word on her indifference, not his arguments, decided Bingley. The essay should meet the objection that he grants the possible error and Elizabeth’s better knowledge of her sister, and must not say how Elizabeth receives the letter or what becomes of Jane and Bingley.
1. Darcy has been walking in the grove, hoping to meet Elizabeth, yet he hands her a letter and leaves before she reads it. Why not stay and talk?Character
What it asks It asks the student to read the handover. When he sees her, Darcy comes “stepping forward with eagerness” and says her name. At the gate, “holding out a letter, which she instinctively took, said, with a look of haughty composure, ‘I have been walking in the grove some time, in the hope of meeting you. Will you do me the honour of reading that letter?’ and then, with a slight bow, turned again into the plantation, and was soon out of sight.” Late in the letter he writes: “You may possibly wonder why all this was not told you last night. But I was not then master enough of myself to know what could or ought to be revealed.” Here “composure” means calm control, “haughty” means proud, and “the plantation” is the planted wood. The student decides why he leaves before she reads. The card does not say how Elizabeth receives the letter; she begins it on the lane, and her response is the next chapter’s.
To stay in control. He hands it over with “haughty composure” and is gone before she can answer. The letter admits that last night he was not master of himself; on paper he can say everything in order, with no one to interrupt him. On this reading leaving is pride protecting itself: he will be heard, but not answered, and not watched while she reads.
with a look of haughty composure
But I was not then master enough of myself to know what could or ought to be revealed.
To give her room. He came “with eagerness”, so the composure may be something he holds on to rather than all he feels. He knows she will read “unwillingly”, and a letter lets her read alone, at her own pace, with no face across from her to answer. On this reading walking away is a courtesy: he asks for her attention and leaves her free to give it.
stepping forward with eagerness
your feelings, I know, will bestow it unwillingly
A strong answer A strong response reads the handover and tests it against the letter. One reader finds pride guarding itself: the composure is “haughty”, he leaves before she can reply, and he has admitted that speaking last night cost him command of himself. Another finds a kind of courtesy: he came eagerly, he expects her to read unwillingly, and he leaves her to read alone. The best answers notice that both readings rest on the same fact, that a letter cannot be interrupted, and carry that into the last written question, which asks what kind of letter it is.
2. Of Elizabeth’s two charges, Darcy calls parting Jane and Bingley the smaller one. Is he right?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to weigh the scale Darcy sets before he answers anything. He opens: “Two offences of a very different nature, and by no means of equal magnitude, you last night laid to my charge.” To have thrown off Wickham, “the companion of my youth, the acknowledged favourite of my father”, would be “a depravity, to which the separation of two young persons whose affection could be the growth of only a few weeks, could bear no comparison.” Yet of the ball he writes: “I had often seen him in love before,” and “I could then perceive that his partiality for Miss Bennet was beyond what I had ever witnessed in him.” Here “magnitude” means size, “depravity” means wickedness, and “partiality” means fondness. The student decides whether parting Jane and Bingley is the smaller wrong, and by whose measure. The card does not say what becomes of Jane and Bingley, or of Wickham, and does not treat the letter as proven.
Yes, on the terms he sets. If the Wickham charge were true, Darcy would have cast off a young man his father loved, who depended on the family for his living, against his father’s own wishes. Beside that, a courtship of a few weeks, with a friend who had often been in love before, weighs less. On this reading the ranking is fair, and he gives the heavier charge the fuller answer.
Wilfully and wantonly to have thrown off the companion of my youth, the acknowledged favourite of my father
I had often seen him in love before.
No, by his own account. He says this love was beyond any he had seen in Bingley, and the hurt fell on Jane, whose heart he admits he may have misread. “Only a few weeks” measures love by time, the one measure that makes it small. On this reading the ranking is part of the defence: the charge he brings a witness against is called the heavier, and the one he partly grants is called slight.
his partiality for Miss Bennet was beyond what I had ever witnessed in him.
whose affection could be the growth of only a few weeks
A strong answer A strong response weighs the two charges and names the measure Darcy uses. One reader finds the ranking fair: ruining a young man his father loved would be a deeper wrong than parting a courtship of a few weeks, and Bingley had been in love before. Another finds it slanted: Darcy himself saw that this love was beyond any Bingley had shown, the hurt fell on Jane, and “a few weeks” is the one measure that makes it small. The best answers notice that he sets the scale before he argues, and that the charge he ranks heavier is the one he meets with a witness.
3. At the ball, Darcy watched Jane and saw no sign that she loved Bingley. What would Jane have had to do for him to see it?Inference
What it asks It asks the student what evidence Darcy would have counted. He writes: “Your sister I also watched. Her look and manners were open, cheerful, and engaging as ever, but without any symptom of peculiar regard; and I remained convinced, from the evening’s scrutiny, that though she received his attentions with pleasure, she did not invite them by any participation of sentiment.” He goes straight on: “If _you_ have not been mistaken here, _I_ must have been in an error. Your superior knowledge of your sister must make the latter probable.” Here “peculiar regard” means a special affection for one person (in Austen’s English “peculiar” means particular, not strange), “scrutiny” means close watching, “participation of sentiment” means sharing the feeling, and “the latter” is his own error. The student decides what Jane would have had to do, and whether anything would have been enough. The card does not say what becomes of Jane and Bingley.
Something Jane never does: show one person more than she shows everyone. Her manners were cheerful and open “as ever”, so nothing in them changed for Bingley, and she took his attentions “with pleasure”. On this reading she would have had to step out of her own nature, and Darcy’s mistake, if it was one, is an easy one to make with a woman who is warm to all.
Her look and manners were open, cheerful, and engaging as ever
she received his attentions with pleasure
Nothing a watcher could have seen. Darcy judged Jane by her face and manners over one evening, and in the next breath he grants that Elizabeth, who knows her, is probably right. A heart can be warm without showing it to a man across a ballroom. On this reading the fault lies in the test, not in Jane: he read a calm face as a cool heart, and he admits the reading may be wrong.
from the evening’s scrutiny
Your superior knowledge of your sister must make the latter probable.
A strong answer A strong response names what would have counted and tests whether Jane could have given it. One reader finds that she would have had to show Bingley a warmth she did not show others, which her open, even nature never does, so Darcy’s reading is an easy mistake. Another finds that nothing a watcher could see would have been enough: he judged from one evening’s look, and he grants that Elizabeth, who knows Jane, is probably right. The best answers notice that the question exposes how Darcy judges: by watching a face for one evening, which is the half of his case with no witness behind it.
4. Keeping Jane’s stay in London from Bingley is the one act Darcy regrets, and he calls it perhaps “beneath me.” What would be different if he had called it wrong?Tone
What it asks It asks the student to weigh the words of the only fault Darcy owns. He writes: “There is but one part of my conduct, in the whole affair, on which I do not reflect with satisfaction; it is that I condescended to adopt the measures of art so far as to conceal from him your sister’s being in town. I knew it myself, as it was known to Miss Bingley; but her brother is even yet ignorant of it.” And: “Perhaps this concealment, this disguise, was beneath me. It is done, however, and it was done for the best.” Of his arguments against the match he says: “I cannot blame myself for having done thus much.” Here “condescended” means lowered himself, “the measures of art” means cunning, and “in town” means in London. The student decides what “beneath me” says that “wrong” would not, or whether, for Darcy, the two come to the same. The card does not say what becomes of Jane and Bingley.
A great deal. “Wrong” would measure the act by what it did to Bingley and to Jane. “Beneath me” measures it by Darcy: he “condescended” to it, and the fault is that a man like him used a trick. Even that comes with a “Perhaps”, and the next sentence takes it back. On this reading the one regret in the letter is for his own dignity, not for anyone’s hurt.
I condescended to adopt the measures of art
It is done, however, and it was done for the best.
Less than it seems. In this letter deceit is the low thing: Darcy scorns Wickham for a “mere pretence”. And the act he names is the one done behind a friend’s back. He argued with Bingley to his face, but this he kept from him, and Bingley does not know it still. On this reading “beneath me” is how a proud man says wrong, and he has put it on the right act.
but her brother is even yet ignorant of it.
his studying the law was a mere pretence
A strong answer A strong response sets the two words side by side and says what each would measure. One reader finds that “beneath me” measures the act by Darcy’s dignity, where “wrong” would measure it by the harm to Bingley and Jane; with its “Perhaps” and its “however”, the regret is narrow and soon taken back. Another finds that, for Darcy, deceit is itself the low thing, so “beneath me” is his way of saying wrong, and he puts it on the one act done behind a friend’s back. The best answers notice how much rests on one word in the only fault he owns, which matters when the last written question asks what kind of letter this is.
5. Darcy tells Elizabeth a secret about his sister, one he says he would wish to forget. Why trust it to her, the morning after she refused him?Character
What it asks It asks the student to account for a trust. Before the story of Ramsgate, Darcy writes: “I must now mention a circumstance which I would wish to forget myself, and which no obligation less than the present should induce me to unfold to any human being. Having said thus much, I feel no doubt of your secrecy.” After it: “Regard for my sister’s credit and feelings prevented any public exposure”. Earlier, he calls the charge about Wickham “that other, more weighty accusation”. Here “obligation” means need or duty, “unfold” means reveal, and “credit” means good name. The student decides why he trusts her with it. The card does not say that every word of the letter is proven, or how Elizabeth receives it.
Because his case needs it. The charge about Wickham is the heavier one, and Ramsgate is the strongest thing he can set against it; without it, the story is a quarrel over a living and a sum of money. He says himself that only an obligation this great could make him tell it. On this reading the secret is evidence, told because nothing less would serve.
With respect to that other, more weighty accusation
which no obligation less than the present should induce me to unfold to any human being.
Because he trusts her. He kept the story from the public to guard his sister’s name, and now he hands it to a woman who blamed him “so liberally” the night before, without even asking her to promise. On this reading it is the most generous thing in the letter: a high judgment of her character, written the morning after she judged his so harshly.
Having said thus much, I feel no doubt of your secrecy.
Regard for my sister’s credit and feelings prevented any public exposure
A strong answer A strong response gives the reason and weighs it against the risk. One reader finds the secret told as evidence: it is his strongest answer to the heavier charge, and he says only such a need could draw it out. Another finds it told as trust: he has kept it from the public and gives it, without a promise asked, to the woman who refused him. The best answers notice that the two need not compete, that a man may need to tell and still choose whom to tell, and that this is the place where reading the letter as nothing but pride is hardest.
6. Darcy’s sister was only fifteen, and he says her age “must be her excuse.” Does he judge Elizabeth’s family by the same rule?Moral reasoning
What it asks It asks the student to set the two halves of the letter side by side. Of Georgiana, Darcy writes that Wickham, with Mrs. Younge’s help, so won Georgiana over “that she was persuaded to believe herself in love and to consent to an elopement. She was then but fifteen, which must be her excuse; and after stating her imprudence, I am happy to add, that I owed the knowledge of it to herself.” Of the Bennets, he writes of a “total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by herself, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father”. Here “connivance” means secret help, “imprudence” means unwise conduct, and “but” means only. The student decides whether one rule is at work. The card does not say that every word of the letter is proven.
No. Georgiana agreed to elope, the most serious lapse he names in either family, and she gets an excuse and a kind word, “I am happy to add”. The Bennets get “total want of propriety”, and no word about youth, temper or anything that might excuse them. On this reading his judgment bends toward his own family.
She was then but fifteen, which must be her excuse
that she was persuaded to believe herself in love and to consent to an elopement.
Yes, more or less. Georgiana was led on by a man whose kindness she remembered from long ago and by the woman in charge of her, and she confessed it herself. What he blames in the Bennets is conduct he says he saw again and again, and his list includes a father, whom no age excuses. On this reading the rule is one rule: a single fault, owned at once, weighs less than a pattern.
by her connivance and aid he so far recommended himself to Georgiana
I owed the knowledge of it to herself.
A strong answer A strong response sets the two judgments side by side and says whether one rule explains both. One reader finds a double standard: his sister agreed to elope and is excused by her age, while Elizabeth’s family is charged with a “total want of propriety” and given no excuse at all. Another finds one rule: Georgiana was deceived by two people and confessed at once, while the Bennets’ faults, by his account, are repeated and include a father’s. The best answers notice that the letter never compares the two cases itself, and that only a reader holding both halves at once can see the question.
1. Darcy admits he wanted to think Jane did not care, but says the wish did not decide what he believed. Can anyone keep a wish out of a judgment that cleanly?
What it asks It asks the student to judge Darcy’s claim about his own mind. He writes: “That I was desirous of believing her indifferent is certain; but I will venture to say that my investigations and decisions are not usually influenced by my hopes or fears. I did not believe her to be indifferent because I wished it; I believed it on impartial conviction, as truly as I wished it in reason.” Of Wickham’s plan to study law he writes: “I rather wished than believed him to be sincere; but, at any rate, was perfectly ready to accede to his proposal.” And of Bingley, his arguments alone would not have stopped the marriage, “had it not been seconded by the assurance, which I hesitated not in giving, of your sister’s indifference.” Here “desirous” means wanting, “impartial conviction” means a belief formed without taking sides, “in reason” means reasonably, and “accede” means agree. The student builds a thesis on whether a wish can be kept out of a judgment as cleanly as Darcy claims, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say what becomes of Jane and Bingley, and must not treat the letter as proven.
He can, and the letter shows it. With Wickham his wish and his belief part ways: he wished Wickham sincere and did not believe it, and by his account the law was “a mere pretence”. A man who can believe against his wish there may do it elsewhere. And he names the wish about Jane openly, which a man fooling himself seldom does. On this reading his judgment of Jane may be wrong, but not because he let a wish decide it.
I rather wished than believed him to be sincere
my investigations and decisions are not usually influenced by my hopes or fears.
Not in this case. With Wickham the wish lost, so we can see it did not rule him. With Jane the wish and the belief point the same way, and that is just when no one, Darcy included, can tell which is doing the work. It also mattered most: by his own account, his word on Jane, not his arguments, decided Bingley. On this reading the one judgment he could least test is the one everything rested on.
had it not been seconded by the assurance, which I hesitated not in giving, of your sister’s indifference.
I believed it on impartial conviction, as truly as I wished it in reason.
A strong answer A strong response might argue that no one can fully keep a wish out of a judgment, and that Darcy’s case shows why: where his wish and his belief agree, as with Jane, he has no way to tell them apart. Key evidence includes his own pairing, “as truly as I wished it in reason”, and his admission that his word on Jane’s indifference, more than his arguments, decided Bingley. The strongest objection is the Wickham sentence: there he believed against his wish, which shows a mind that can judge apart from its hopes, and he names the wish about Jane openly. A revised thesis might hold that Darcy is more honest about his wishes than most people, but that honesty about a wish is not the same as freedom from it, and the one judgment he could least check is the one he acted on.
2. Darcy says he writes because his “character required it.” Is the letter more an apology to Elizabeth or a defence of himself?
What it asks It asks the whole question of the chapter. Darcy opens: “I write without any intention of paining you, or humbling myself, by dwelling on wishes, which, for the happiness of both, cannot be too soon forgotten; and the effort which the formation and the perusal of this letter must occasion, should have been spared, had not my character required it to be written and read.” He goes on: “If, in the explanation of them which is due to myself, I am under the necessity of relating feelings which may be offensive to yours, I can only say that I am sorry. The necessity must be obeyed, and further apology would be absurd.” On Jane he grants, “If _you_ have not been mistaken here, _I_ must have been in an error,” yet he closes that half: “though the motives which governed me may to you very naturally appear insufficient, I have not yet learnt to condemn them.” On Wickham he gives dates and sums, and names a witness, Colonel Fitzwilliam, whom she may consult: “If your abhorrence of _me_ should make _my_ assertions valueless, you cannot be prevented by the same cause from confiding in my cousin”. He ends: “I will only add, God bless you.” Here “due to myself” means owed to his own good name, “abhorrence” means deep hatred, and “confiding in” means trusting. The student builds a thesis on whether the letter is more an apology to Elizabeth or a defence of himself, meets the strongest objection, and revises. The card must not say how Elizabeth receives the letter, that every word of it is proven, that Darcy still hopes to marry her, or what becomes of Jane, Bingley or Wickham.
A defence. He says so on the first page: the explanation is “due to myself”, and his character required it. He says sorry only for the pain of reading it, and calls more apology “absurd”. On Jane he grants he may have misread her, but not that his reasons were wrong. On Wickham he brings dates, sums and a witness, as a man answers a charge. On this reading the letter is written to clear his name, and asks of her only that she judge him justly.
The necessity must be obeyed, and further apology would be absurd.
I have not yet learnt to condemn them.
More of an apology than it admits. He grants that if he misjudged Jane, her anger “has not been unreasonable”; he calls the concealment perhaps beneath him; he trusts her with his sister’s secret; and he ends not on his case but on her. He hopes she will “acquit” him, so her judgment of him matters to him. On this reading the letter apologizes in what it gives her, even where its words refuse to.
your resentment has not been unreasonable.
I will only add, God bless you.
A strong answer A strong response might argue that the letter is above all a defence, because Darcy says it is owed to himself, apologizes only for the pain of reading it, and refuses to condemn his motives about Jane even while granting he may have misread her. Key evidence includes “further apology would be absurd”, “I have not yet learnt to condemn them”, and the witness he offers on Wickham. The strongest objection is everything the letter gives that a defence does not need: the admission that her resentment may be reasonable, the concealment called beneath him, his sister’s secret, and “God bless you”. A revised thesis might hold that the letter defends his reasons and concedes his facts: he will grant that he may have been wrong about Jane, but not that he judged wrongly, and that line between a mistake and a fault is where the apology stops.
But however this remonstrance might have staggered or delayed his determination, I do not suppose that it would ultimately have prevented the marriage, had it not been seconded by the assurance, which I hesitated not in giving, of your sister’s indifference.A strong protest, made to someone’s face to change their mind (the verb is remonstrate). Darcy’s remonstrance is his argument with Bingley against the match. He says it might only have “staggered or delayed” his friend; what settled it was his own word that Jane did not care. The sentence shows how much rested on that one judgment.
Of what he has particularly accused me I am ignorant; but of the truth of what I shall relate I can summon more than one witness of undoubted veracity.Truthfulness; the habit of telling the truth (Latin verus, true, as in verify and verdict). Darcy promises “more than one witness of undoubted veracity” for his account of Wickham, and later names Colonel Fitzwilliam. Set beside “witness”, it is the language of a court: in the Wickham half of the letter he argues like a man answering a charge, with witnesses, and in the Jane half he offers none.
The situation of your mother’s family, though objectionable, was nothing in comparison of that total want of propriety so frequently, so almost uniformly betrayed by herself, by your three younger sisters, and occasionally even by your father:--pardon me,--it pains me to offend you.Proper behaviour; doing what is fitting and expected in company (related to proper). Darcy says the lower rank of her mother’s family was nothing beside “that total want of propriety”, a lack of fitting behaviour, shown by her mother, her younger sisters and at times her father. It is his heaviest charge against her family, and it is about conduct, not birth.
The vicious propensities, the want of principle, which he was careful to guard from the knowledge of his best friend, could not escape the observation of a young man of nearly the same age with himself, and who had opportunities of seeing him in unguarded moments, which Mr. Darcy could not have.Natural leanings or tendencies, usually toward something bad (a propensity is what a person is inclined to do). Darcy says Wickham hid his “vicious propensities” from the old Mr. Darcy, but not from a young man of his own age who saw him “in unguarded moments”. Here, as with Jane, Darcy rests his judgment on what his own eyes saw.
His own father did not long survive mine; and within half a year from these events Mr. Wickham wrote to inform me that, having finally resolved against taking orders, he hoped I should not think it unreasonable for him to expect some more immediate pecuniary advantage, in lieu of the preferment, by which he could not be benefited.Appointment or promotion to a post, especially a post in the church (from prefer, in its old sense of put forward). The preferment here is the family living the old Mr. Darcy meant for Wickham, a parish with its income. Wickham asks for “pecuniary advantage”, money, “in lieu of”, instead of, the preferment. Darcy sets out the exchange in sums and dates, as evidence.